Addgene is a non-profit plasmid repository dedicated to helping scientists around the world share high-quality plasmids.

1. Joanne Kamens, PhD Executive Director
ADDGENE
A UNIQUE NON-PROFIT BIOTECH

2. How I Got Here
Couple of
Kids
BASF/Abbott Addgene
• Advisor with
(Pharma) • Director of Research (Non-profit)
strong ties to • RNAi early adoptor • Business Dev
industry • Executive
• Good at managing • HBA leadership role
Director and all
• Collaborations • Alliances that entails
• Incensed by lack of
diversity in science •?
• Collaborations RXi
Harvard PhD
(Biotech)

3. Addgene Helps Scientists Share Plasmids
Non-profit, mission driven company dedicated to facilitating
collaboration and sharing in the scientific community
We fund this mission by making it easy to share plasmids!

4. Digression—What is a Plasmid?
• Plasmids are fragments of double-stranded DNA that can
replicate independently of chromosomal DNA, and usually
carry genes
• Scientists can easily study and manipulate genes and other
genetic elements using specifically engineered plasmids
which have become possibly the most ubiquitous tools in the
molecular biologist’s toolbox
• Types of Plasmids
• Cloning
• Expression
• Gene knock-down
• Reporter
• Viral

5. Addgene Statistics
 >20,000 plasmids stored
 From >1,360 contributing labs, 270 institutions worldwide
 >250,000 plasmids shipped (not including kits), 1,400/week
 45% shipped to scientists outside the United States
 Samples shipped within 2
business days of MTA approval
“I do science differently because I
can use the Addgene library to find
¼ Million Milestone reagents”

6. Sharing Plasmids with Addgene
It’s free to deposit plasmids
• Addgene’s PhD Scientists help store plasmid data and take care
of the quality control sequencing
We work with the Tech Transfer Offices
• To establish MTAs for each plasmid
What plasmids to we solicit for deposit?
• Published Plasmids
• Soon to be published plasmids—Addgene can hold plasmids
until publication, once the paper is published, we can associate
the deposit with the appropriate PubMed ID and make them
available online
• Full length genes, Reporters, Plasmid tools /collections useful to
the community

7. Why is this Working?
• Tenacious and talented founders
• First adopters were respected scientists,
prestigious institutions, leading TTOs
• Plasmids were getting less “valuable” in
potential licensing terms
• Everybody was getting fed up with how
long it takes to get an MTA in place
• Addgene created a “Win-Win-Win” service

8. Creating a Win-Win-Win Situation
Depositor Wins
– Save time by not having to answer requests for published reagents
– Gain exposure with searchable database
– Increase citations of depositor publications
– Protection against usual lab turnover, archiving of key reagents
– Never have to figure out how to ship to Qatar
Requestor Wins
– Gain access to many laboratories’ plasmids through one order
– Find things you didn’t know you needed in the database
– Actually receive the plasmids requested, usually within days, and no
reminder emails need to be sent to a busy lab tech
– International access
– Rigorous QC and curation
Technology Transfer Office Wins
– Scientists actually use MTAs to exchange plasmids
– “Credit” for clearing MTAs rapidly
– Get a list of who has plasmids any time (for grants or legal record keeping)

9. Addgene’s Electronic MTA System
• You want it, you sign it—no red lining
• Based on the Universal Biological MTA
• Each plasmid exchange has a signed MTA
• Addgene maintains close relationships with the Tech
Transfer Offices to make this as easy as possible
15%
3% Very dissatisfied
How would you rate your 9%
Somewhat dissatisfied
level of satisfaction with Neutral
Addgene’s MTA services?
74% Somewhat satisfied
Very satisfied

10. New Initiative – Therapeutic Area Collaborations
www.addgene.org/PD
• Addgene is collaborating with The Michael J. Fox
Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to
assemble a collection of plasmid DNA samples useful for
researchers studying this disease
• MJFF has provided a set of 200 plasmids available for
both academic and industry requestors

11. Pilot Initiative—Distribution to Industry
• Two collections (~1,000 plasmids) now available to
industry requestors
• Only slightly modified MTA (very similar to the UBMTA)
• Addgene actually has some industry depositors-still
working on ways to continue to bridge the gap